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   Vol. 16 No. 25
Monday March 13, 2017

Alexis Youth & Vigor Drives Lufthansa 2017

     It’s been just over two years since December 1, 2014, when Dr. Alexis von Hoensbroech took the reins as Board Member Products & Sales of Lufthansa Cargo AG.
     But while the “twos” are a traditionally terrible period for growing up, it appears Alexis has handled himself with grace and aplomb whilst undoubtedly discovering that air cargo is a horse of a different
color.

     Alexis is accustomed to challenges. Once upon a time, he served as Head of Commercial Frankfurt for Lufthansa with responsibility for network management, revenue management, and commercial business management at the airline’s biggest hub.


Disarming Youth & Vigor

     That job is no walk in the park, not by any measure. Here in a frank, up front, and wide-ranging conversation that both analyzes the events of 2016 and looks ahead to 2017, Alexis brings
a fresh pair of eyes as well as a disarming sense of youth and vigor to air cargo.


First Things First


     “From an economic perspective, Dr. Alexis said, “2016 was certainly a challenging year for us.
     “But 2016 has also demonstrated to us that our customers really appreciate our sustained efforts to improve further.
     “We have set a lot of things in motion together.
     “I would like to express my utmost appreciation to many of them for the superb cooperation.
     “The strong fourth quarter 2016 was a great relief for us and the solid demand seems to continue into this year, thus helping us to return to a healthier level.”



Clear Choices For 2017

     “Our goal is clear: we want to be the first choice for our customers when it comes to air cargo.
     “Our new structure with flatter hierarchies will help us in this.
     “Being closer to our customers now will allow us to be even faster and more pragmatic than before in our decision-making for them.”



IATA CEIV Leads The Way

     “Lufthansa is one of the few airlines in the world with IATA CEIV certification.
     “This is both an achievement and an incentive for us.
     “We want to be the first choice for our customers in the area of temperature-sensitive goods as well.
     “With this in mind, we will significantly expand our Cool Center at the Frankfurt hub this year.


Forwarders In Numbers


     “Forwarders are our customers and account for the vast majority of our business.
     “We enjoy very strong relationships to most of the big forwarders as well as to many small- and medium-sized businesses.
     “And we will continue to do our very best for them in the future as well.”

LH Cargo on tarmac Amidst reports that the Lufthansa Cargo product branded Emergency.Solutions may lead to occasional bumping of contract rate cargo, causing issues with forwarder customers and others who fear loss of predictable service—including the fact that Lufthansa does not guarantee bumped cargo will ship on the “next flight, [but] rather the next available flight”—a spokesman for the airline told FlyingTypers:
 It goes without saying that we do all we can to transport every single item of cargo as booked.
 However,” the spokesman said, “naturally there is limited cargo capacity on each flight.
 So if our customers book exceptionally large volumes of high-priority cargo at short notice using our Emergency.solutions product, for example, it is conceivable that a booking with a lower transport priority and more flexible timeframe might have to be rebooked on an alternative flight.
 However,” the spokesman emphasized, “there are relatively few high-priority cargo bookings of this nature.
 Thus, rebookings affecting the guaranteed time of arrival are extremely rare.
 Of course, in such a case we would work with the customer affected by the rebooking to find the best possible solution.”    


The Power To Deliver

     “We provide the strongest cargo uplift network to, from, and across Europe, sitting with our main base in the largest European airfreight market: Frankfurt.
     “And being German engineers, it is our tradition and ambition to provide the best quality in the industry combined with strong product and business innovation.
     “But we are also very self critical when it comes to our reliability and will continue working on constantly exceeding the highest standards with respect to this.
     “Of course we also sometimes cause service failures, but every failure is also an opportunity to learn from it, thus constantly improving our service.
     “Our restructuring effort also offers us great opportunities to become even more flexible.”



Taking An Industry View

     “We believe our industry has to become better digitally connected.
     “Compared with other industries, air cargo is lagging behind dramatically in this respect.
     “We want to contribute to the digital change as Lufthansa Cargo and are in constant dialog with our customers and partners regarding this.
     “Lufthansa has always been known to the market for quality services and tailored products.
     “We believe this clearly serves the need of the shippers.
     “After all, when shippers use air cargo, their motivation is not so much saving money but fixing a problem.
     “So quality and reliability are key!
     “We are in a constant dialogue with various shippers to innovate our products to best fit their specific needs.
     “This is further intensified as we introduced an industry development function as part of our product management department as of January 2017.”



Getting Back To Basics

     “We launched td.Basic, a deferred product at a very attractive price, only bookable online.
     “It made a promising start over the past few weeks and we are looking forward to its development in 2017.
     “Towards the end of next year (2017), we will also launch our new booking engine, which will allow all our products to be booked online.
     “Our view is this action is an exciting and important step towards digitization.
     “Last but not least, we introduced a new service for private customers last year.
     “With myAirCargo, we now fly over-sized odds and ends as well, such as bulky holiday souvenirs that customers want shipped across the Atlantic.
     “This is certainly a niche product in the industry, but we are excited to see how it develops.”



What Needs To Be Done

     “It might not sound very out of the box, but I believe the single most important change to this industry is digitization.
     “We still have so much unnecessary cost across our industry, our average industry quality levels are poor, and shipments still spent too much time sitting around in warehouses.
     “Digitization can significantly improve all of this, if we take a serious effort.
     “And if we don’t do it ourselves, someone else will step into this opportunity.
     “However, air cargo remains a very exciting industry with great characters and a strong human factor.
     “This is unique and I am convinced this will prevail despite digitization as the soul of our business.”
Geoffrey



On The Marco At WCS

      (Abu Dhabi) As IATA’s Annual Airline Cargo Meeting, now branded World Cargo Symposium, kicks off in Abu Dhabi today, March 13, amidst a gaggle of press, glitz, and enough back-to-back and belly-to-belly sessions (some running concurrently over a three-day period) to induce vertigo or maybe even nausea, FlyingTypers looks to the day that counts at this event above all the others. On Tuesday, March 14, everybody is in the same room at the same time for the Opening Plenary.

Good & Plenary

      The Opening Plenary is always the compact, most incisive information feed of this event. It offers the usual suspects, which this year includes local UAE dignitaries, host airline Etihad CEO Jim Hogan, IATA officials, and others delivering twenty-minute reports and position presentations.

Who We Are On The Half Shell

      In most cases, these presentations offer cameo-type glimpses of the many private sessions—a kind of ‘who we are’ glimpse minus the grittier ‘what we think’ conversations that occur in the ‘members only’ events IATA conducts.

A Clear Voice

      We look to a non-IATA member who is in Abu Dhabi this week and always seems to be out front, putting facts and figures into the words most often repeated after any conference he attends.

On The Marco Reports

      In a place where ‘what have you done for me lately?’ can often translate (at least amongst the airline chieftains) into ‘why the hell am I here?’ there is Marco Bloeman, (above) Senior Vice President of Seabury, the Netherlands-based aviation, aerospace, maritime, and financial services company. He is a clear voice of reason, delivering wisdom and words to savor and offering the maximum WCS takeaway.
      Mr. Bloeman is on the spot for 20 minutes at 15:00 on Tuesday afternoon.

The Seabury View

      Here are some views from the Seabury year end (2016) report.
      In line with 2016, we do not expect air trade to grow much faster than GDP, as it used to in the last century,” Mr. Bloeman points out.

The Constant Is The Rule

      “Some things,” Marco Bloeman said, “won’t change. We expect emerging markets will continue to outperform developed markets in terms of growth.
      “South and Southeast Asia are places to watch for relative growth, while China, even amid dire warnings about an economic slowdown, will still post growth in absolute terms.”

Air Cargo Wake Up Call

      “For the air cargo sector, there will be good news and bad news.
      “Declines in the volumes of laptops needing transportation by air may not be as dramatic as in 2016, but that said, there is no new high-tech commodity in line to fill the gap.
      “Perishables will continue to grow faster than other sectors, fuelled by rising demand for fresh flowers, fruit, and fish across the globe.”

High Flying USA Airlines

      “U.S.-based carriers can expect to enjoy some relief as currency exchange headwinds will continue to stifle currency effects as well as by an increase in air freight capacity.
      “Overall, demand for air freight worldwide should show moderate growth in 2017, but with wide body belly capacity increasing by 5-6 percent as well as the delivery of new freighters due in 2017, the issue of overcapacity will dominate the industry this year as well,” Marco Bloeman concluded.

Geoffrey




 “Several seminars around the world were held to better understand the needs of the customers and create an engaging user experience,” stated a press release as Swiss World Cargo unveiled a revamped http://www.swissworldcargo.com.
      Changes include expanded shipper-friendly features, like Track ‘n’ Trace.
      Appearance is clean, slick, and even includes the latest commentary from the media in a ‘social media feed’ feature that looks for all the world like “Trip Advisor Comes To Air Cargo.”
      So far, the social feed is all about the website itself.
      Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see if (God forbid) SWISS has a service issue and someone writes about it, that social feed content gets by the Swiss WorldCargo website editor.
      If you have three-and-a-half minutes, there is a video that can be viewed here.
Geoffrey

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Delta Dash Goes GPS

       At presstime Flying Typers learned that Gareth Joyce, President Cargo, Delta Air Lines will take on global responsibility for airport customer service worldwide (above and below wing) in addition to his role as President Cargo.
       As Delta Cargo introduced DASH Critical & Medical, a GPS-enabled, same-day product now available from ten U.S. locations, Gareth Joyce said, “We’ve tailored and developed this product around our customer needs with the highest boarding priority of any Delta Cargo product, and the fastest transit times in the logistics industry, said
       “No one else offers a comparable service,
       “We are working to expand the program across our domestic and international network as well as make enhancements, Mr. Joyce said.


Performance Not Promises

RE: Great One-Day Cargo Meet At JFK

Dear Geoffrey,

     Thanks for the great coverage of the JFK Air Cargo Association’s Expo 2017 in yesterday’s FlyingTypers.
     I would also like to thank you, on behalf of our board, for the kind things you found to say about our organization.
     Lastly, thanks for the coverage and updates on two of my former leaders and mentors, Jan Meurer and Mr. Jacques Ancher.
     I owe both a huge debt of gratitude for having been given the opportunity to be an integral part of their management teams and organization.
     With great appreciation and sincerity,

Best regards,
Joe B.
Joseph Badamo
Vice President Sales, the Americas
Silk Way Airlines

Geoffrey, Sabiha Jacques and Jan

From left: Geoffrey & Sabiha Arend with Jacques Ancher and “Wild Thing” Jan Meurer, together for the first time in Istanbul as Jacques joined the air cargo immortals in the TIACA Hall of Fame on April 28, 2014.
For More on Jacques Ancher, please click here.
For More on Jan Meurer, please click here.

Dear Joe,

     We have the greatest respect and admiration for the job you do giving back for the betterment of the industry not only in New York, the greatest city in the world, but to air cargo everywhere.
     People like you, Ryan, Jim, and the rest make all of us look good.
     Hope to see you soon,

Geoffrey


George PaetowDear Geoffrey,
 
     A small picture in today’s FlyingTypers triggered my interest.
     George Paetow is in a photo line (far right).
     Is the man still alive?
     He treated me quite kindly when I first came to New York on board the inaugural flight of Austrian in 1968!
     I was a cargo salesman for Austrian at that time and was promoted to Cargo Manager of Austrian Airlines later.
     I would like to extend my best regards to him, and I guess he would remember me.

Best Regards,
Uwe Glaser
President
Cargomind GmbH
Cargo Building, Sector 7
1300 Vienna
Austria

Dear Uwe,

     Thanks so much for writing.
     I met George (who I regret to tell you left us more than 20 years ago), when he was the top U.S. manager for Air India Cargo, responsible for a growing air cargo business based at JFK International Airport.
     He was soft spoken, analytical, and always quite helpful, but right down to business.
     George taught me quite a bit about air cargo alongside his assistant at the time, Frank Sclafani.
     Later, Frank would rise to a top post at Eastern Airlines Cargo after George retired.
     George spent his remaining years teaching transportation at a local college here in New York.
     You meet lots of people in this life. George is always revisited in memory as one of the greats in air cargo. He loved aviation from his younger days, when he served in the Luftwaffe, and moved into a brilliant air cargo career, capping a life well lived as a teacher and sharing what he knew with future generations.
     Thanks, Uwe, for bringing back those memories.

Geoffrey


If You Missed Any Of The Previous 3 Issues Of FlyingTypers
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FT030317
Vol. 16 No. 22
Long Road To Tomorrow—The Biofuel Story
Chuckles For March 3, 2017
FT030317
Vol. 16 No. 23
Nordic Cargo Summit Grooves 10th Outing
Chuckles for March 7, 2017
Global Britain And India Pact
Great One-Day Cargo Meet At JFK

FT030317
Vol. 16 No. 24
And The Bull Blinked
Chuckles for March 8, 2017
To The Top Of American Airlines Cargo
Trump Effect Pt. 3 - USA Readies Reset

Publisher-Geoffrey Arend • Managing Editor-Flossie Arend •
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